The Shepherd, October 2008
SiR UK* NEWS
* Synod in Resistance Churches in the UK
VISIT OF BISHOP AMBROSE
THE MONTH before Bishop Ambrose’s proposed visit, we seemed to experience a period of intense trial and temptations. Several of our people, singers and readers, also went down with prolonged colds, loss of voice, and one parishioner even contrived to concuss himself just before the visit! We dreaded that we would not be able to cope. Perhaps, stupidly, we had paid too much attention to those news items from America which suggest that it is choirs which can raise the roof that really impress God! However, as it was, His Grace arrived safely and was met at Brookwood station on Friday, 12th September (n.s.), and after spending the night at the Brotherhood, he served the next morning at the chapel of the Saint Boniface Mission in Ryde, assisted by Fr Alexis and Fr Stephen Fretwell. As is his wont, he preached a series of sermons on the Gospel, on mission, on the saints of the day; and afterwards the few parishioners there treated us to a massive meal. This was, in all probability, the first time since the schism of the West from Orthodoxy in the eleventh century, that an Orthodox hierarch had served on the Isle of Wight. Finding rather unexpectedly that we had some time to spare on the return journey, we made a detour to visit Bishop Ambrose’s old school, Winchester College, and thus enjoyed a private tour of this historic school led by His Grace. On arriving in London, to which we were travelling to serve the Vigil at the Convent, we made a second detour to show the Bishop the Russian Church on Harvard Road, Gunnersbury, where he was greeted by Archpriest Thomas Hardy and Fr Peter Baulk and several members of the congregation. Still we arrived at the Convent in time for tea, before the Vigil service that evening. In the morning, the Sunday and the Church New Year, His Grace served at the Convent of the Annunciation, where the congregation was boosted by a large number of the traditionalist Romanian faithful. After the Divine Liturgy, Mother Vikentia and her sisters invited the Bishop and the people to a fine breakfast in their dining hall, and afterwards the Bishop stayed to speak to the sisters and to join them for lunch. On the Monday, His Grace returned to Brookwood for the celebration of the feast of St Edward the Martyr, with the Vigil service on the Monday evening and the Divine Liturgy and the Lesser Blessing of Waters on the Tuesday morning. His Grace preached first about the significance of Holy Relics and the Church teaching concerning them, then on Saint Edward, on monasticism, on not judging one’s neighbour and on true repentance. After the service, as is his custom, he took the opportunity to speak to as many people as possible, giving some private counsel and spiritual advice. Because of the number of people we were only able to offer a buffet lunch, but the women of the parish provided for us plentifully, and this gave the Bishop more opportunity to circulate and meet and talk with parishioners individually. On his insistence, before he left we had a group photograph taken with those that were still with us, which has since been posted on the Synod in Resistance website. We had worried that, because of the illnesses and the troubles that we had experienced before the visit, we would not be able to make the episcopal visitation “impressive,” forgetting the Biblical lesson, that the Bishop’s visit and inspired words recalled to us, that God was not manifest in the earthquake, the roaring fire or the mighty wind, but in the still, small voice. Bishop Ambrose’s words of help and healing, - his still, small voice, - were more impressive and spiritually uplifting than any “show” that we could have put on - Another lesson to be learned thoroughly.
|
